


Twenty Years

by afterandalasia



Category: Princess and the Frog (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Community: disney_kink, Developing Relationship, F/F, Femslash, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Girl Saves Girl, Protective Charlotte La Bouff, Protectiveness, Restaurant Owner Tiana, Restaurants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:16:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've always been in love. They just didn't know it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twenty Years

**Author's Note:**

> From the marvellous anon [prompt](http://disney-kink.livejournal.com/9516.html?thread=5809196#t5809196) on Disney Kink.

1914  
  
"Don' worry, Tia," mumbled Charlotte, looking out of the window. She wasn't sure if Tia lived that way, but maybe if she talked to the sky it would reach Tia somewhere. "'ll kiss your frog for you. 'll kiss a zillion frogs for you if I need to."  
  
Marcel having escaped, she hugged the frog costume sleepily to her, and drifted off to sleep.  
  
  
  
  
  
1916  
  
Charlotte snuck into the kitchens to steal some blackberries and bread and jam, and Tiana bought a cake that she'd made, and they ran off and hid in the garden, giggling. They talked for hours, and chased each other around the flowerbeds, and ate so many blackberries that it stained their lips and fingers, and Charlotte had to lie down, groaning.  
  
"Tia, I have never tasted such good cake in my life. Your Daddy sure does cook well."  
  
Tiana gave her a shy smile, showing her dimples. "I... I made it myself, Lottie. For your birthday."  
  
With a shriek of delight, Charlotte hugged her and gave her a sticky, jammy kiss on the cheek.  
  
When Eudora found them, she groaned at the grass stains on Charlotte's pink dress and the blackberry juice on Tiana's green shirt, but did it all with a smile on her face.  
  
"I'm glad you girls are friends despite everything," she said, and Charlotte wondered briefly what there could be to stop them.  
  
  
  
  
  
1918  
  
For two days after Tiana's father died, she didn't leave her room, she was crying so hard. Even her mother couldn't get her to come out. Finally, Charlotte begged and begged her father until he took her round, and she didn't even stop to look at the area of town she'd never been in before as she ran over to the house.  
  
When Tiana wouldn't open the door or remove whatever was jamming it shut, Charlotte climbed in through the window instead, even though it was awfully unladylike and she fell over once she got in.  
  
Tiana was curled up on the bed, her eyes all red, clutching her father's handkerchief. It was soaked through. Charlotte just removed the chair from behind the door, so that Eudora could get in if she needed to, then sat and put her arms around Tiana.  
  
She didn't need to ask, and Tiana didn't need to say a word.  
  
  
  
  
  
1921  
  
Tiana dropped out of school on her fourteenth birthday - as soon as the law would allow - to work full-time rather than just the evenings bussing tables she had done before. She gave her wages to her mother, and kept the tips in tins in the drawers, and when Charlotte asked about them a sad light filled her eyes.  
  
"Daddy's dream was to run a restaurant," she said. She pulled a folded, faded piece of paper our of her shirt, and flattened it out so that Charlotte could see. "A proper classy one, with waiters in bow ties and a real live band. Integrated. The food would be so good folks wouldn't care whether they were sitting with blacks or whites or colored folk."  
  
"You should called it James's Palace, when you open it," said Charlotte. They were sitting on the balcony of her room, feet dangling.  
  
"Maybe I will," Tiana replied.  
  
They sat there a while longer, Charlotte taking Tiana's hand, waiting as long as they could before Tiana had to run off to her job.  
  
  
  
  
  
1923  
  
If there was one thing Charlotte loved, it was parties. Well, probably the color pink would just about edge that out on the list, but she definitely loved parties. Even if her lovely new pink dress with its hoop skirt and the feathers in her hair were all a little _old-fashioned_ (and that was the word that they used to her face, not even the ones that she heard them using behind her back), well, she was Charlotte LaBouffe and could wear whatever she pleased.  
  
She loved parties, and she loved pink, and she loved the honeysuckle that was all around the ballroom and the wine that her father was finally letting her drink and she certainly loved smiling at young men and watching them trip over their words or, a couple of times, their feet.  
  
But it didn't feel right. She wished that Tia were here with her, in a pretty dress, looking happy and smiling. She didn't smile so much nowadays, and Charlotte wasn't sure how she could fix that. She just knew that she wanted to, and wanted to break down the barriers that the world seemed to be wanting to set up between them.  
  
  
  
  
1926  
  
"Oh Tia, sugar, what's wrong?" Tiana tried to turn away, but Charlotte caught hold of her arms and held her there, looking at her with a fluttering terror in her heart. "D- do you need to go? Did something happen?" After everything that had already happened, and how happy Tiana had been to have the money for her restaurant... well, it was about time that something had gone right. She looked so lovely in the blue dress, and Charlotte had so wanted to let her have _fun_ this Mardi Gras, just for once.  
  
Tears rolled down Tiana's cheeks, and Charlotte used one of Big Daddy's handkerchiefs to wipe them up again. "The Fenner brothers," said Tiana finally.  
  
"The men from the real estate?"  
  
"Uh-huh." Tiana nodded. "They said they had another bidder. Said it was for the best, anyway. Oh, Lottie, I was so close, I could just taste it..."  
  
Charlotte gathered her up as she tried to hold back more tears, and pursed her lips. "Why, those no-good... you stay here and mop yourself up, sugar," she said, pressing the handkerchief firmly into Tiana's hand. " _Ah'm_ gonna deal with those two weasels."  
  
"Wait, Lottie-" Tiana started to interrupt her, but Charlotte had already hitched up her skirts and exited the room.  
  
Why, the nerve of those men! Swindling a hardworking gal like Tiana, and over a building that had been sitting empty for nearly twenty years! Charlotte rounded the top of the stairs and continued down without even waiting for the band to play their little fanfare again. Her blue eyes narrowed as she caught sight of the men, wandering around as two halves of a pantomime donkey. Oh, they were an ass all right.  
  
She marched straight over to them, her skirt cutting a swathe through the crowd, and rapped the nearer one on the head with her fan.  
  
"Yes?" he said silkily, turning, then his eyes widened as he saw who it was. "Why, Miss LaBouffe, what an honour! Please, pass the me-urk!"  
  
Her hand wrapped around his bow-tie and hauled him close, so that they were eye-to-eye. "Now you listen to me, Mr. Fenner. That old mill down on the waterfront, the one that good, diligent, nice young lady went and put the down payment on? You are gonna find her and apologise for the way that you have treated her."  
  
The other Mr. Fenner tried discreetly to reach in and pry Charlotte's hand away, but seemed to be surprised by the strength of her grip. She pointed her fan at him.  
  
"You too, Mr. Fenner."  
  
"Sh-she was outbid," stuttered the one that she had by the collar.  
  
"Oh no, she ain't been," Charlotte corrected them. "And if there ain't a good and proper apology coming her way, I will have _words_ with Big Daddy." The men visibly paled; everyone knew that Eli LaBouffe was wrapped around his daughter's little finger. "And you will never work in this here town again, do you hear me?"  
  
  
  
  
  
1927  
  
James' Palace opened on New Years day, to the biggest crowd this side of Mardi Gras. Charlotte had been disappointed with the lack of pink in the decorating, but the gold was very pretty ("What about red?" Tiana had suggested instead, and Charlotte had thought for a moment before nodding enthusiastically. "I can work with red.") and prettiest of all was Tiana in her lovely white and gold dress.  
  
"You got a smudge of flour there, Tia," said Charlotte fondly, licking her thumb and reaching out to rub it away.  
  
Tiana threw her a smile. "Thanks, honey. Say, how 'bout you stay after closing tonight, help me try out a new recipe?"  
  
Charlotte sat on the counter with her feet dangling, probably getting flour on her dress, and just grinned. "Perfect," she said.  
  
And it was.


End file.
